LAHORE: The top brass of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) will be meeting here in the Punjab capital on Jan 2 to decide about participating in the by-polls for various National and provincial assemblies seats, it is learnt.

The 11-party opposition alliance’s meeting will be hosted by PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz at her Jati Umra residence and chaired by Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

Besides the by-polls, resignations from assemblies, participation in the forthcoming Senate polls and the long march schedule will be on the agenda of the meeting.

The alliance has held a series of rallies in major cities across the country to press the government to resign and hold fresh elections. It is now taking its protests to towns for mobilising the masses for a march on Islamabad.

Meeting agenda likely to include resignations from assemblies, Senate polls, long march

The opposition had earlier given a deadline of Jan 31 for the government to step down and go home or it will announce a long march on Feb 1. Under the plan, heads of each of the 11 constituents of the PDM will take out rallies from their respective strongholds and march on Islamabad separately and merge before entering the federal capital.

Now, sources say, the date was being extended to beyond March 23 apparently because of the second wave of coronavirus. But, observers see this as an outcome of the alleged differences among the PDM members on the upcoming by-polls as well as Senate elections due in March.

Presently, two National Assembly and six provincial assembly seats were lying vacant for around eight months due to deaths of lawmakers.

PPP leader Taj Haider had moved the Election Commission of Pakistan for holding by-polls to the seats, arguing that the people of the provincial constituencies, especially, would go unrepresented in the Senate polls if their representatives were not elected in time.

The PPP, it is learnt, argued that the opposition must not leave the field open for the ruling party in the Senate elections otherwise it would prove lethal for the next government if and when the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf was forced out of power. For the purpose, it desires that by-polls to the three Sindh Assembly seats lying vacant were held before the Senate elections, as, except for the Sindh government, all other provincial governments were reluctant to agree to any electoral contest during the ongoing pandemic.

The PML-N is also indecisive about the issue and hopes to reach a final decision through internal consultations before the PDM meeting on Jan 2.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2020